Dreamflows is publishing the following alert on behalf of American Whitewater. Please help circulate the alert below to appropriate locations in the CA paddling community.
| To: | California Whitewater Community | |
| From: | Dreamflows, on behalf of American Whitewater | |
| Subject: | Upper South Fork American Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 2101 |
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) produced a scoping document for their hydropower relicensing application about a month ago. All interested parties (and that includes you!) are invited to submit written comments to this scoping document. You can easily download a copy in Acrobat format. We urge all paddlers to submit written comments, which must be received by SMUD by October 13, 2003. You don't have to comment on every aspect of the scoping document, and you don't necessarily have to come up with new ideas of your own. It's quite okay to restate, and thereby reinforce, issues that are already in the scoping document - for example the key whitewater boating issues listed below. Contact us if you need assistance filing written comments.
The paddling community's two principle representatives during relicensing negotiations are Bill Center and Chris Shackleton. Currently there are no scheduled releases, and no realtime gauges available to us, on any reach in the project area (see below for a list). Boatable flows (due to spill) are rare and very hard to predict. During the relicensing proceedings, Bill and Chris will be negotiating on your behalf for scheduled releases on appropriate reaches, realtime flow gauges on all reaches, guaranteed and/or improved river access, etc. By submitting written comments, you express the continuing interest in these issues of both yourself, and the paddling community in general. Your comments also become part of the public record. Therefore, during negotiations, your written comments will provide Bill and Chris with a critically needed extra voice.
For your reference: The Upper South Fork American hydroelectric project contains a complex network of dams, diversions, tunnels and powerhouses that alter the timing and volume of flows in the following river reaches:
Key Whitewater Boating Issues:
Written comments will be accepted by SMUD through Monday, October 13, 2003, and should be mailed to:
American Whitewater will itself be filing comments with SMUD by October 13th, but needs you to file your own as well. If you have any questions, please contact John Gangemi or Chris Shackleton. Thanks!
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